ATP Finals 2020: Medvedev beats Dominic Thiem in the final
Daniil Medvedev won the ATP Finals for the first time. In the final he beat Dominic Thiem 4: 6 and 7: 6 (5) and 6: 4 and thus crowned himself the unofficial tennis world champion. (Here you can read the match in the live ticker!
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Nov 22, 2020, 10:09 pm
Daniil Medvedev hadn't promised too much. He had already trained twice with Thiem during the week, and there were long spectacular rallies. "I think this is going to be great tennis," he announced for the final. He should be right.
Thiem had to fend off two break chances in the first service game, two good serves helped him. Bitter for Medvedev: At 2: 2 he spoiled a 40: 0 - two forehand errors were there and Thiem had great defensive qualities on the third ball, but Medvedev still messed up a feasible smash in the end. And gave up the game via a double fault.
Bitter for Medvedev, Part 2: With Thiem's set ball at 5: 4 and 40:30 he was on the trigger and attacked properly, but Thiem's forehand flew past him inaccessible with the help of the net edge.
Medvedev in the tie-break with seven points in a row
In the second set everything stayed in line until the 3: 3, Thiem then came to the first breakball, which Medvedev fended off with a Harakiki action: Second serve through the middle, brutal return Thiem from the back gang - to the Medvedev somehow still got the racket and made a stop, which the rushing Thiem moved out of bounds. Medvedev fended off a second break ball over the serve, but Thiem missed a chance for a third break ball after a strong rescue from Medvedev, but frivolously with a 900 km / h forehand.
A brief moment of shock in the next game, when Thiem stumbled and flew over, but immediately indicated: everything is okay. The best rally of the game was at 30:30: Medvedev saved with praise, at the end of the 34-stroke rally he answered a fine slice of Thiems with an unreachable forehand briefly cross. Thiem safely fended off the breakball and equalized shortly afterwards.
In the tiebreak, Thiem started with the early mini-break, but Medvedev scored seven points in a row - he equalized the set with his tenth ace. The strong balance in set two: Medvedev with 19 winners, Thiem only with 7.
Medvedev uses 9th breakball
Round three started critically for Thiem: 1: 1 and 0:40 it was there, but the world number three unpacked tight forehands - and the fist in the direction of Nicolas Massu after winning the game. Thiem also had to fight at 2: 2, Medvedev used the third breakball of the game with a courageous net attack - the first break for him, at the ninth breakball overall. Thiem came on again in the subsequent game, but in the end Medvedev served safely.
The 24-year-old not only achieved his first triumph at the ATP Finals, he will also remain the last winner in London. From 2021 the ATP Finals will move on to Turin.
Both Thiem and Medvedev had joined the manageable club of players with their semi-final wins , who could beat Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal in one tournament.
Last year Thiem had lost in the final against Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Here you can read the match in the live ticker!
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